Ethiopia’s House of Peoples’ Representatives voted to extend the State of Emergency by four months on Wednesday (March 29), passing a bill entitled “State of Emergency Proclamation for the Maintenance of Public Peace and Security Renewal”.
This extends the proclamation decreed in October last year. The Minister of Defense and Secretary of the Command Post responsible for enforcing the State of Emergency, Siraj Fegessa, told Parliament that the Command Post, chaired by Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, wanted to see the emergency decree extended to reinforce “the peace and stability which has been gained since Parliament declared the State of the Emergency.
The State of Emergency has been amended twice since October, with the lifting of the curfews imposed on areas close to industrial sites and major development projects. More recently, it has also ended the arrest of suspects without court warrants, and lifted travel restrictions for diplomats.
The vote this week follows the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament two weeks ago that “the majority of people surveyed by the government wanted to see the emergency law extended.”
